[johnny313]

this may seem weird but my red plants turn green when I put them in my tank.
my tank is a 120G and I have 5 T5HO's bulbs. 2x 65k's, 2 x 10K's and I have a purple ATI ( for the cardinal tetras ) The light is about 4" off the tank on the fixture legs. the fixture is a Current Outer Orbit.
i run 2 bulbs from 4pm to 12am all 5 from 5pm to 10pm and just 2 from 10pm to 12am


I dose ferts. i use NPK and CSM+B
KNO3 1 1/2 TSP
KH2PO4 1/2 TSP
K3SO4 1/2 TSP
CSM+B 1/2 TSP

I usually mix ferts in warm water and then pour it in the tank. I do a 60 to 80% water change every saturday.

I run CO2 where the DC is greenish yellow. I also dose iron as well and use seachem root tabs.

should the red plants be turning green?

 

[JasonG75]

NO...typically I have been told in order to keep them red you need high light and Iron. Seems like you have both in place.

maybe lower the light 2" ?

 

[johnny313]

i dont know if I wanna lower the light. im getting that green hair algae on the edges of my sword plant. I was thinking of increasing the dry ferts.

 

[JRMott]

I've heard enough hypothesis that I've honestly got no firm answer.

I've read that red is a sign of stress. Potential example: I received red ludwigia that was very red when it arrived after being shipped in the dark for several days. Once in my tank it quickly lost most of the red and is now mostly green with some red hues.

I've hear high iron, high light, low something else, etc and have yet to get my plants looking like they were when they arrived.

 

[happi]

this may seem weird but my red plants turn green when I put them in my tank.
my tank is a 120G and I have 5 T5HO's bulbs. 2x 65k's, 2 x 10K's and I have a purple ATI ( for the cardinal tetras ) The light is about 4" off the tank on the fixture legs. the fixture is a Current Outer Orbit.
i run 2 bulbs from 4pm to 12am all 5 from 5pm to 10pm and just 2 from 10pm to 12am


I dose ferts. i use NPK and CSM+B
KNO3 1 1/2 TSP
KH2PO4 1/2 TSP
K3SO4 1/2 TSP
CSM+B 1/2 TSP

I usually mix ferts in warm water and then pour it in the tank. I do a 60 to 80% water change every saturday.

I run CO2 where the DC is greenish yellow. I also dose iron as well and use seachem root tabs.

should the red plants be turning green?

lower the KNO3 and you will start to see the red colors, this also stress the plant though.

 

[AirstoND]

High Water hardness and low alkanity affect redness.

 

[johnny313]

High Water hardness and low alkanity affect redness.

dont know what my hardness is but my ph is 6.1 due to the co2

 

[happi]

High Water hardness and low alkanity affect redness.

i had a hard water in the past and never seen any plant turn red due to water hardness.

 

[AirstoND]

i had a hard water in the past and never seen any plant turn red due to water hardness.

In terms of high water hardness I meant plants are greener. Actually it could be a combination of factors such as lack of circulation, with calcification or algea on leaves (Carbonate ion exchange on leaf surfaces during photosynthesis) This ultimately affects how light is processed.

 

[chad320]

I tried high light, low KNO3, High iron, etc....the only thing that works for me is a long photoperiod of 15 hours. You need medium lighting for a LONG time, not high light. Bump your Co2 with your lights to reduce algae, one bubble/second and one hour extra a day.

 

[tetra73]

I see more red leaves when they are closer to the light and near the water surface. My Temple plants would have red/brownish leaves as they are near the water surface. My creeping jenny would have pinkish color when they are growing at the water surface and horizontally. My green cabombas never turned read even growing side way by the water surface.

 

[johnny313]

i will use only 3 T5's.. 2 x 65k's and one 10K. leave them on for 12 hours a day. reduce KNO3 to 1TSP instead of 1 1/2TSPs. I use liquid Iron. i use seachem... says to use 1 cap full per 50 gallons (I have a 120 so I use 3) I will increase to 4 cap fulls per week. my CO2 is at 15BB/s now so I know I have enough co2. I also use flourish once a week just because.
here is the tank:

my amazon sword:

 

[Dempsey]

To add onto what chad said, I would also ditch the 10k's... They seem to have been the cause of some hair algae for me a whole back. Not sure if the were or not... Maybe get some 6700? The 65s and 67s seem to give a nice hue to the plants and make the reds, purples and orange "pop" more.

I also dose a butt load of fe. I have never reduced the amount that I dose to see if that really makes a difference though. I just like adding lots.

 

[Bahugo]

When I used a 10k bulb in my 56g (one 6700 bulb and one 10k) alot of my plants lost alot of color.

 

[johnny313]

wouldnt 6k or 6.7k make the tank look yellow?

 

[jkan0228]

I have 1 6700k, 1 6000k, 1 10,000k and 1 Colormax from Coralife. Seeing nice red in my Ludwigia lacustris.

 

[chad320]

I agree with Dempsey on the 10Ks. I also think dry ferts are better than Seachems stuff. I would try to get Millers microplex and some DTPA Fe and mix your own.

 

[johnny313]

I agree with Dempsey on the 10Ks. I also think dry ferts are better than Seachems stuff. I would try to get Millers microplex and some DTPA Fe and mix your own.

I use NPK+CSMB. is seachem iron bad to use?

 

[chad320]

Yep. Add the millers and DTPA to your CSM+B.

 

[happi]

I use NPK+CSMB. is seachem iron bad to use?

seachem Iron will only last in water for minutes, csm+b last for couple of hours.